Sweet Nothings
by ManiaManiaGirl
Summary: A bunch of FMA Oneshots. It'll mostly follow the Brotherhood/Manga continuity.


The fat white flakes drifted down as if they were taunting him. If the lights hadn't gone out, he would've closed the curtains so that he wouldn't have to see the foot and a half of snow outside.

It rarely ever snowed like this in Central, and this was probably the deepest snow he'd seen since he moved here. He could barely open up the door due to the sheer amount of snow on the front steps. What also discouraged him was the temperature. It had to be somewhere around twenty below out there, and there was no way that he'd be taking their four-year-old out in that kind of weather, regardless of whether or not his wife was there to keep their little girl inside, so the Lieutenant Colonel was left in a state of melancholy that was most unlike himself.

From the lack of power, the inability to leave the dark house, which had been scrubbed clean out of sheer boredom a couple days ago, and the mood, he looked and felt ten years older.

"Daddy?" He had almost drifted into half-sleep when Elicia's voice snapped him awake.

"What is it, darling?" He asked, yawning.

"I saw something outside." She said meekly. "It jumped up onto the roof."

The Lieutenant Colonel stood up from the couch and stretched. "You don't have to be scared, Elicia. I've got this." He grabbed a few small knives, threw on his coat, and forced open the door. He stayed alert, one of the knives in his hand, with Elicia behind him in her coat as well.

"There it is!" She pointed at what looked like a blob of black on the pale roof.

The Lieutenant Colonel threw one of the knives, narrowly missing as the blob unfolded itself and walked away from the projectile. It made its way to the other side of the roof, completely unharmed.

"See, Elicia. There's nothing to worry about." He said, picking up his daughter. "It was just one of the stray cats. There's a ton of them near where I go to work. They even have little cat houses- Where are you going?"

Elicia started walking to the other side of the house, calling out for the stray cat. The Lieutenant Colonel was soon looking at the cat as well.

"Elicia, let's go inside." The Lieutenant Colonel said, guiding her back to the door. He put her back in her room before he set a portion of last night's dinner on a plate and grabbed a towel before heading back outside.

"Here, kitty kitty." He set the plate of leftovers on the steps while he waited for the cat to come out of hiding. It jumped down from the roof and into the snow after about ten minutes, licking at the sauce, then taking small bites. He extended his hand towards the cat's head, and it briefly sniffed at it before resuming its meal.

He looked at the cat and smiled wryly. It wasn't much better off than he was during the civil war. A part of the cat's left ear was torn off, as was the end of its tail. He could see a few pink scrapes on the cat's face as well as the skin over its stomach sagging from days without food.

"Don't worry little guy. I'm not going to hurt you."

The Lieutenant Colonel opened up the door for the cat, who came in once it felt the slight heat from the fireplace. Elicia had noticed the cat almost immediately after, squealing in delight when she saw it. The cat paced around the living room, and the two of them followed it as it explored the house.

"Does Mama know about him?" Elicia asked.

The Lieutenant Colonel shrugged. "She'll find out about him when she gets home. He needs a place to stay, at least for a little while."

"Can we keep him?"

"Well…" He hesitated. The cat probably belonged to someone else before it had wandered to their house, judging from its appearance and how it hadn't run away from the two of them. If he ended up later finding out that the cat had an owner looking for it, then he would be left with the decision to either let his daughter down and return the cat or to keep him and live with the guilt. Even if the owner wasn't looking for it, he was still concerned as to what his wife would have to say about any of this...

Elicia's voice pulled him out of his daze. "We can call him Snow!"

"Snow? It's a black cat."

"Yeah! Snow! He was in the snow, so his name is Snow!" She smiled, expecting approval from the Lieutenant Colonel.

He cracked a small smile and shook his head. "Honey, I don't think he'll like that name. How about we just call him Kitty for now?"

"But Kitty's boring!"

He squatted down to look his daughter in the eyes. "Kitty might have to leave soon."

"Why?"

"Because Kitty probably has someone looking for him." The Lieutenant Colonel said hesitantly. "He's probably someone else's Kitty. That someone must be worried sick about him, right?"

Elicia nodded her head, understanding.

"But you don't need to be sad about that. He can still stay here for a little while. At least until the snow outside lets up, right?"

"Yeah…" Elicia's eyes didn't leave the cat, which had jumped onto the back of one of the chairs in the living room. "But if nobody's looking for him, then can we keep him?"

The Lieutenant Colonel cracked a small smile. "We'll cross that bridge when it comes."


End file.
